This year we are aware that there will be some positions on the regional committee made vacant by recent resignations, but I am also acutely aware that some members are responsible for more than one role and I would like to spread the work a bit more evenly. Having said that, we also need to plan ahead, the new Governance arrangements are going to insist that the period of time committee posts are held is limited; see Governance Working Group article elsewhere in this newsletter. We need to do some succession planning.

So what does being a committee member involve and how do you become one? Well most of the committee roles are administrative, that is keeping records up to date, issuing advice and updates on procedures. Currently we meet virtually using Zoom, on the first Monday of the month for an hour or so in the evening. However, there are occasions when we need to meet collectively to deliver a service for the members. That might be to man a recruitment stand or to help to deliver training. But don’t worry, we are volunteers and nothing is compulsory. We also understand that you join the club to go marshalling, not to sit at a desk drafting letters or updating procedures.

How do you become a committee member? Officially you are nominated and elected by BMMC members of a region as a committee member at their Annual General Meeting (AGM). You do not necessarily need to belong to that region but it is preferred you are. Roles and duties are usually assigned at the first committee meeting after the AGM. You can also be co-opted on to a committee at any time to fill a recently vacated role, but your official membership of the committee does not commence until it is ratified at the AGM even if you are delivering a co-opted role in the interim. You are nominally elected for a three-year term and the new Governance arrangements would limit you to a maximum of three terms, i.e. nine years. But at the risk of repeating myself, we are volunteers, you can quit at any time, but remain “in post” until the next AGM.

You will hopefully have noted that we are currently looking for a new Training Officer and our Membership Secretary has very recently advised of his decision to resign at our regional AGM in October. From time to time we do issue notices of such vacancies but we do not expect anyone to jump into a post without some knowledge of what they are letting themselves in for. We have detailed job descriptions for each committee role and we strongly recommend that you attend a committee meeting or two before you make any commitment to join.

We are a friendly group of like-minded souls in South Mids and are always happy to meet members and discuss their issues. We need to know what members think about the club and what we are doing. If you are interested in getting involved please contact Marion Quarrington at sm.secretary@marshals.co.uk and she can send you job descriptions and invites to committee meetings.

Being a Committee member might sound incredibly boring but we seem to enjoy ourselves and we do get involved in setting the marshalling world right. We would welcome your involvement.

Chris Whitlock

With thanks to the BMMC South East team, here is a quick guide of how to access the BMMC Volunteering site and select events you want to volunteer for.

Step 1: Go to the Volunteering Site

First, head over to BMMC Online Volunteering site and enter your BMMC username and password. You can also reach this site from the regional pages by clicking on the Volunteering link on the menu.

Log into the system with your BMMC details.

Step 2: View the available events

Once logged in, the system takes you to the main page. From here, the system will show you every event that is taking place in the UK. To make it easy to find the circuit you want to volunteer at, just select the drop down bar for all circuits and select the circuit you are interested in. This will then show all the events for that circuit. You can also show the events per region or select the type of event.

Click on any event to see the details, and to volunteer.

At the top of the page, you can see all your selected events by clicking My Calendar, or you can download all events for your Calendar (for instance Outlook) by clicking ICS Calendar.

Step 3: Volunteer for an event

Once you have selected the event you wish to volunteer for, you will see the event expand and give you several options to choose from. In the example below, I have selected a BRSCC event at Silverstone. From here, you can select the duty you would like to volunteer for and give consent for your personal data to be given to the organising club and its Chief Marshal. Then hit ‘register’.

If you have a preference for a duty at a particular event, or you are wishing to undertake an upgrade, it is best to email the Chief Marshal as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment. You can find their email address on the same event page, underneath the register button.

If you have already volunteered for the event directly through the organising club, all you need to select in the “Volunteered with organising Club,” give consent and then hit register. This will mean you are now covered under the insurance you have with the BMMC.

The system will show you a green confirmation box at the top of the page. This confirms that you have submitted an application to volunteer for the event you selected. By following the same process, you can choose further events to volunteer during the rest of the year.

When you go back to the list of events, you will see the ‘Volunteer for event’ button has now changed to green and shows ‘Duty (e.g. flag) Volunteered’

It was great to hear that Marion Quarrington, Secretary for the BMMC South Midlands Region, has been awarded Marshal of the Year by Hunts Kart Club at Kimbolton. It is a great recognition of her contribution to marshalling in general and the Kimbolton team specifically.

Congratulations Marion!!

It is with great sadness, that I announce my intentions that the 2023 training days will be the last that I organise and we are beginning the process of finding my replacement as training officer.

Unfortunately my life is currently too busy to sustain everything I have going on and this means it won’t be possible for me to do all the behind the scenes work for a training day and it is only going to get busier over the next couple of years.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the 3 years of training days that I have run so far, they have all been extremely different due to the pressures of the time and I hope that our 2023 days will be the best yet and a high point for me to bow out as training officer.

I will be remaining as a Motorsport UK trainer and will be supporting our new regional training officer as a trainer and as a guide through all the paperwork required.

If you are interested in taking on the role, see below for the job description.

If you want to know more about what the role entails please contact me on sm.training@marshals.co.uk and I will be happy to talk you though the role and my experiences.

It would be great to get our next training officer in place as soon as possible as you will then be able to attend our planning meetings for 2023 and attend the days to learn the role.

Matt

BMMC SM Training Officer

We announced the South Midlands annual awards after the AGM on 29 October.

This year our Member of the Year is Ian Greenwood, a Track Marshal at Silverstone. Ian has demonstrated that, despite suffering a serious illness, he has persevered with marshalling in 2022 and has provided strong leadership and guidance for new marshals on his own initiative. Unfortunately Ian was not able to join us in the evening, but had been surprised by being presented with his award by Chris at sign-on for the Birkett that morning.

Our New Marshal of the Year, and recipient of the Lesley Harris Trophy, is Ian Whiting, a Trainee Track Marshal at Silverstone. Ian readily offered to take on a committee role when the grading officer post became vacant and, despite having the challenge of adapting to the new marshals pathway, has offered sound advice and answers to queries regarding grading issues. Ian received his trophy after the AGM from June Copeland.

We have published the Annual Report for the South Midlands Region of BMMC, for review at the AGM on 29th October 2022. Below you can read or download the full details.

As a reminder, we are holding the Annual General Meeting for the South Midlands Region on Saturday, 29 October at the Saracen’s Head Hotel in Towcester.

The Regional Annual Report is available to read or download by clicking this link.

Annual End of Season Dinner including 55^th Annual General Meeting

will take place on Saturday October 29th 2022

At The Saracen’s Head Hotel, 219 Watling Street, Towcester NN12 6BX

AGM to start at 7:30pm, dinner to start at 8:00pm

Menu Choice (overview)

Starter: Ham hock & pea terrine; King prawn and avocado: Mushrooms with garlic sauce; Sweet potato, chickpea & red pepper koftas.

Main: Traditional roast beef; Chicken fillet with mushroom sauce; Salmon fillet & Prawns; Beetroot, sweet potato and butternut squash tart; Butternut squash and cashew Wellington.

Dessert: Afternoon tea cheesecake; Triple-Chocolate Brownie; Apple and blackberry crumble; Prosecco sorbet.

Please see attached menu for full description, allergen information and calorie content.

Two courses £15 BMMC members / £20:99 members’ guests

Three courses £22 BMMC members / £27:99 members’ guests

Members costs sponsored by BMMC National Council. Please pay for all meals on the night in cash (preferred). Please note that the above costs exclude any items in the “Make It Extra Special” section.

Please advise your dinner attendance and menu choice no later than 14th October 2022 by contacting Marion Quarrington on email sm.secretary@marshals.co.uk.

Note: a charge may be made if a pre-booked dinner is cancelled after 26^th October 2022.

Please also advise by 26th October2021 if you are attending the AGM only and will not be attending the Dinner, so we can make appropriate seating arrangements.

Marion Quarrington

Secretary, South Midlands Region

It is with the deepest sorrow that I have to announce the passing of my fellow Vice-President, George Copeland. George succumbed to the cancer he had been fighting for many years. He died peacefully with his family around him.

George has been a member of the Marshals Club almost as long as me. He joined the club in 1970 and quickly took on the role of Newsletter editor for South Mids. A few years later he assumed the position of Regional Chairman, which he held until 1978 when he retired from the committee to concentrate on his growing business concerns (He was MD of BlowMoCan – probably the first producer of the plastic milk bottles we all use so many of nowadays).

Less than two years later George was asked to look at the club’s books – which he did and was almost immediately co-opted onto National Council as Treasurer. To say his Scottish upbringing was seen in abundance is an understatement – he ruled our finances with an iron hand and was the lead in persuading the MSA and others to help fund our training (which, until then, had been financed purely from club funds!).

I always enjoyed Council meetings when George had a pet item he wanted sorting there was no let up until it was sorted – and many were the heated discussions with other members of Council.
In 1999 I had resigned from Council because I was spending most of my time jetting round the world on business, but it was at a Snetterton race meeting where I was MSA Steward and George was one of the clerks that we spent the whole weekend talking BMRMC business and George ended by persuading me to take on the role of National Chairman. We then developed an interesting relationship – at times very heated, since it was a Yorkshireman v a Scot, and we both had our ideas as to how the club should develop.

Not long after this the first signs of George’s illness started to make themselves known, but George took his usual stance – “The bugger is not going to beat me!”. George must have tried almost every drug and treatment available – he was lucky to have a very good relationship with one of the top cancer specialists in the country and was put on to an experimental set of drugs and treatments. He coped stoically with the sometimes-horrendous effect they had on him – always being positive whenever we spoke.

The marshal’s club owes George an enormous debt of gratitude – without his financial acumen the club would have gone broke many years ago and would probably not exist today. George had the club at the forefront of his thoughts every time we met and did everything he possibly could to ensure its continuing success.

He was proud of being a member of the club, proud of his involvement in Motorsport at National and International level, and very proud of being made a Vice-President when he retired from National Council.
June and his family have lost a great father, grandfather and Great Great Grandfather. The club has lost an irreplaceable champion. There will be a strictly family only funeral, followed by a wake in his memory, where, I hope, a great deal of whisky will be drunk in his honour.

I hope to produce a longer, more detailed tribute in the coming month or so, so if you have any stories, or would like to contribute words in any way, please email me – hobson.c@btinternet.com.
Chris Hobson
BMMC Vice-President.
8/8/2022
The BMMC sends its deepest condolences to June and the close family and friends of George. He was a stalwart of the club and will be sorely missed.

We are holding the South Midlands Annual General Meeting on Saturday 29th October, at the Saracen’s Head Hotel in Towcester, followed by the annual dinner. The details for the AGM are posted below. We are looking forward to seeing our members on the day.

The draft minutes from the 2021 Annual General Meeting are posted below.